3 Essential Art Elements to Consider When Designing a Website

Effective online marketing involves more than active social media accounts and a solid SEO strategy. To draw attention to your brand on the Internet, you must start with a strong, well-designed website. This is where a background in art and graphic design can make all the difference. By applying a few basic rules of design, you are able to create a website that is both attractive and highly effective.

Art Elements to Consider

Color Whether they’re vibrant, dull, light, or dark, colors have a strong impact on the energy and tone of a website. Not only does the color scheme have to be visually appealing, it must be in sync with your particular brand as well. If your company has a logo with a distinctive palette, you should include those characteristic colors for the sake of brand recognition. But, colors can do a lot more than represent your brand — they can also engage the visitor and draw their attention to particular features on your web page. Using contrast to catch the eye is a great way to lead visitors to a “call to action” button.

Negative Space Sometimes, what you don’t see is just as impactful as what you do see. Negative space, also known as “white space” is crucial to creating a clean website with a clear message. You may be tempted to fill every nook and cranny of your site with descriptive text and flashy photos, but doing so will just overwhelm your visitors and complicate communication. Any professional web design company will tell you that creating unnecessary clutter is the last thing you want to do during website development, so when in doubt keep it simple.

Visual Hierarchy We read from left to right and from top to bottom. That being said, it makes sense that we would follow the same pattern when scanning a website. Knowing how your visitors will view your page means that you have the ability to control what they see first. When you create a layout for your site, make sure you keep this visual hierarchy in mind. For instance, you will want to put the most important information in the top-left quarter of the screen.

Studies show that it takes no more than 50 milliseconds for an Internet user to form an opinion about your website. That is why you need an experienced web design company to create a site with these and other art elements in mind.